CrowdScience
Apr 24, 2026
CrowdScience listeners Dougie and Molly have been wondering what happens to animals when they die, and whether there are animals that hold rituals to mark the passing of one of their kin.
Presenter Caroline Steel is on the case, trying to work out what happens to the bodies of animals when they die. Dougie and Molly say they rarely see animal carcasses where they live - so where do they all go?
Dr Sarah Perkins of Cardiff University in the UK runs a research project called Roadlab, which logs how quickly the bodies of animals killed by traffic disappear, and she thinks she might have a clue. Caroline joins her on a hunt through the undergrowth for animals, and answers.
And when animals lose a member of their flock, herd or school, do they indulge in rituals that look anything like a funeral? Caroline meets Dr Kaeli Swift, an ecologist at the University of Washington in the US, who has some surprising evidence from her research into bereaved crows.
Meanhile, in Botswana, Mathale ‘Metal’ Mosheti is a safari guide in Chobe National Park. The African Savannah Elephants there demonstrate some remarkable behaviour when another elephant dies. But do animals really grieve for their loved ones? Dr Barbara J. King, Emerita Professor of Anthropology at William & Mary University in the US, has some ideas. But is it enough to answer Dougie and Molly’s question?
Presenter: Caroline Steel
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Editor: Ben Motley
(Photo: Little red sick bird canary inside a wheelbarrow pushed by a lizard. Credit: Fernando Trabanco/Getty Images)
